Vinod Khosla, the iconic billionaire has once again demonstrated why he is the undisputed 'venture capitalist with the Midas touch'. When it comes to clean technology, no one can rival Khosla's ability to raise money even in depressed market conditions.

Recently, two of Khosla Ventures' new funds -- Khosla Ventures III and Khosla Ventures Seed -- raised $1.1 billion, which is actually more money than they had targetted originally. The money will be used to foster innovation in areas, including clean energy technology.

In an exclusive interview with Aziz Haniffa, Editor, India Abroad, Khosla acknowledged that he was 'a little bit surprised' at people's interest to invest in green and high-risk experiments even in a down market, and said that it was indeed a very good sign.

The Pune-born Khosla, 54, formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures, in 2004. He co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1980 after graduating from Stanford University, along with his college-mates Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and University of California Berkeley alumnus Bill Joy.

After leaving Sun in 1985, he joined the venture firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1986 and was associated with several major ventures, including Juniper Networks.

Khosla is also one of the founders of The Indus Entrepreneurs and ck12.org that aims to develop open source textbooks and lower the cost of education in America and elsewhere.

Besides Stanford from where he received his MBA, he is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, from where he received his bachelor in technology in electrical engineering and Carnegie Mellon University, from where he received his masters in biomedical engineering. Read on. . .